Quotable Quotes

More recently, Wolfowitz added what most have believed all along, that the reason we went after Iraq is that "[t]he country swims on a sea of oil."

This appears in this June 11, 2003 AlterNet article by John Dean (of Watergate fame). This phrase -- that Iraq floats on a sea of oil -- (not swims) is the sort of jaw-dropper that is destined for wide repetition, on the Internet and elsewhere, as a shining example of Bush administration duplicity about the causes of the Iraq war. Well, far be it from me to defend Bush & company, but Wolfowitz was taken grossly out of context, as the retraction by The Guardian (where the quote originally appeared) makes clear. That retraction reads, in part: "A report which was posted on our website on June 4 under the heading 'Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil' misconstrued remarks made by the US deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, making it appear that he had said that oil was the main reason for going to war in Iraq. He did not say that. He said, according to the Department of Defense website, 'The...difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with North Korea is very different from that with Iraq.' The sense was clearly that the US had no economic options by means of which to achieve its objectives, not that the economic value of the oil motivated the war. The report appeared only on the website and has now been removed." But wait, there's more; take a look at this!

Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war... That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

Hermann Goering said this to Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert recorded these in his book "Nuremberg Diary" (DaCapo Press; Reprint edition, September 1995, ISBN: 0306806614). While I haven't verified the quote personally, the author and book conclusively exist. Details here.

. . . you know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.

These words were spoken by Jed Babbin, a former deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration, during a 30 January 2003 appearance on the political talk show Hardball. The comment was offered during the course of a discussion about differences between U.S. and European policy towards Iraq. This has since been (mis-)attributed to a number of people, most notably Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who probably wishes he'd said it...).